Computer and communication technologies continue to advance at a rapid pace. Indeed, computer and communication technologies are involved in many aspects of a person's day. For example, many devices being used today by consumers have a small computer incorporated within the device. These small computers come in varying sizes and degrees of sophistication. These small computers may vary in sophistication from one microcontroller to a fully-functional complete computer system. For example, small computers may be a one-chip computer, such as a microcontroller, a one-board type of computer, such as a controller, a typical desktop computer, such as an IBM-PC compatible, etc.
Computers are used in almost all aspects of business, industry and academic endeavors. More and more homes are using computers as well. The pervasiveness of computers has been accelerated by the increased use of computer networks, including the Internet. Most companies have one or more computer networks and also make extensive use of the Internet. The productivity of employees often requires human and computer interaction. Improvements in computers and software have been a force for bringing about great increases in business and industrial productivity.
Computer networks use rules governing the transmission and reception of data. These rules of the computer network are often referred to as a protocol. There are many different protocols that are being used today in combination with computer networks. One important protocol in use today is the Internet Protocol. The Internet Protocol is the network layer protocol in the TCP/IP communications protocol suite.
The current Internet Protocol version is known as IPv4 (IP Version 4). Because of the rapid growth of the Internet the IPv4 address space will eventually be exhausted. The new version of Internet Protocol is known as IPv6 (IP Version 6). IPv6 aims to provide increased functionality for computer network communications.
The migration from IPv4 to IPv6 will not be an immediate process, but will take some period of time to accomplish. As a result, there will be a transition period where some systems are using IPv4 and some systems are using IPv6. Thus during the transition period, the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols need to coexist.
As shown from the above discussion, there is a need for systems and methods that will enable the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols to coexist. Improved computer network systems and methods may enable these protocols to coexist and may also minimize some of the difficulties that may be experienced during the transition period. Benefits may be realized by providing increased functionality to assist in the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.